The Onjon ni Ivadoy, cont,

|The president of the Onjon on it 3^rd year was Dr. Antero Ampaguey. 

I have not been able however to talk to him to know who he is, where he or his clan came from.

I just know that a certain Ampaguey told my grandfather Tagdi told my mother that a certain old man named Ampaguey was his relative.

Next time, I will write more about him.

The next president of the Onjon was and is Jackson Chiday of Loakan.  He was the fourth, and is the fifth president of the Association.

He is a greatgrandson of Mil-an, a.k.a known as Agmaliw, son of Batil who was one of the three men who made the swamp between the two mountains of Loakan as a ricefield, draining the swamp of the water that filled it from the mountainsides.

Mil-an used to work on the land where his forebears Saguid and Sa’bot used to live, at the place  called Bubon in Loakan.   Their farm included the area whereon the Loakan Elementary School, and later, the Mil-an High School have been built.  It also included the area where the San Lorenzon Ruiz Chapel has been constructed in the early fifties.

Saguid and Sa’bot were the parents of Dangeg, Batil’s wife.  Batil and Da’ngeg were the parents of Chacchacan, Mil-an, Bonga, Camid, and Dingan (not in that order). 

He was also a grandson of Chacchacan, brother of Mil-an who used to farm and raise cattle on the north-west end of Loakan where now exists the Loakan Community Cemetery, the north approach of the Loakan Airport, and the private residences of members of the chacchacan Clan and of those who bought lands from members of the family.

Another grandfather of Jackson was the late Mariano Pingi who was a son of Garoy who was a son of Molly, sister of Mariano of Shalshal.  Mariano and Molly were children of Batil by his first wife Bitnay of Bekakeng.

He is also a grandson of Chiday, son of Kivas and Comiw who hailed from Tublay and who, when they died, were buried on the spot where the City Hall building has been built.

Kivas and Comiw used to work for Mateo Carino.            

Urbano, son of Chiday by his wife of a second marriage (after his wife Topdja died), once said his father Chiday and Sioco, Mateo Carino’s son,  would embrance each other like brothers whenever they met.  To be contued.  btpistola

Repost authorized by author

Volume 1, No. 38
March 22, 2015

The Northern Tribune

Baguio City, Philippines

The Dead Become Gods

As the people celebrating the day of the dead go to the cemeteries to do so, a good number of Ibalois do not.  This is because they did not bring their dead loved ones to the cemeteries, or they brought home from the cemeteries the bones thereof.

Because of this, they do not contribute to the heavy traffic in the Central Business District, or Baguio (Ba-giw).  They also do not form part of the crowd in the cemeteries. 

This is because the non-christian Ibalois of old did not believe that the dead are unconsciousness.  To them, the dead have become gods.  Enkirios ira, as some say it.  Or enkishiyos ira, as others do.

The younger Ibalois who have become Catholics do still believe in the old concepts.   That is why they still keep their dead in a special place inside their houses, or under their floors, or in their front or back yards. 

Some of those who brought their dead to the cemeteries bring home the bones thereof, especially when they dream that their dead loved ones  are in need of shelter, or blankets, or other things that they enjoyed while alive as human beings.

And because of their act of bringing home the bones of their loved ones, or their not bringing to the cemeteries the remains of their loved ones, they have waived their rights to free burial at the cemeteries reserved for them.   (I actually do not know how many community cemeteries are free to the Ibalois.  I am just certain of one cemetery, i.e. the Loakan Community Cemetery which was reserved in the early 1900s on representation of the then Consejal Tagley also known as Tagdi and other elders of the old Loakan for Loakan Ibalois and where they are not supposed to pay fees).

Today, the Loakan Community Cemetery is filled with the remains of many non-Ibalois who have gotten into the place and are now enjoying free burial that was supposed to be for the Ibalois of Loakan.  The area earlier reserved even got over-filled so that a portion of the adjacent lot got included in the cemetery area. 

The original cemetery area, and the addition are parts of the land owned by the late Chacchacan (Shakshahan) and/or his ascendants in the native concept.  The areas were supposed to be for the Ibalois of Loakan who are the relatives of the late Chacchacan.  

B.T. Pistola

(Authority to repost given by Author)

Published:
Volume 1, No 13
TNT, Baguio City, Philippines
October 12, 2014
https://thenortherntribune.blogspot.com/

Uprooted Igorots Returned Home

In the previous issue of this paper, I stated that when the Aguinaldo forces came, and the American soldiers after them, the Ibalois who were uprooted from their respective villages returned to them thus making  Baguio seemingly devoid of people except a few who belonged to the Apulog – Padya Clan, that is the Dengbises or Enrique Ortega Clan, the Pinaoan Baticalang and Picnay Clan, the Dovos Badjating and Tadaha Apulog Clan, and Kidit Apulog and his wife, Samay Piraso; and the Kumicho II clan. 

The descendants of Kumicho by his son Apsan Carantes were Cuidno, Mateo a.ka Kustacio, Jatjaten and Tacdoy, a.k.a. Damsis.

In Pacshal and its adjacent areas, there were the descendants of Baticalang and his wife Sela the Ubanan or Uvanan (with grey hair, i.e  uba n or uvan).  They were Piraso, Pinaoan, Khasima and Sulikham.

From Piraso descended Salming, Cotileng, and others. From Pinaoan and Picnay were Molintas, Rafael who is also known as Rebes or Rives, and others.  From Khasima were Mendoza (Tonged) Djaris, and  Siwed and Shagul Abodilis.  And from Sulikham and Comising who was also known as Tagdi  and Tagley or Tagle and Tagley Soley was Amado, a.k.a Takinan.

These were the people who lived within the Baguio of that time, the one-square kilometer where the ‘paoay’ grass abounded hence its being referred to as Kafagwayan, aside from its being a place where the Baguio  hang from the pine tree branches  in great numbers.

There were also other Ibalois in Baguio then  who did not leave the place when the Americans came.  But  some who were brought to the one-square kilometer wide Baguio that the Spaniards made into a ‘pueblo’  went back to their villages which they were forced to leave because of the Spaniards desire to concentrate them in their so-called pueblo.  Kalias of Loakjan was one who went back to Loakan when the Americas came but his son Comising Tagle or Tagley was left behind with his wife Sulikham Baticalang.   Their house was on the spot where the Baguio Cathedral now stands.  Sulikham’s hrother Piraso lived on the area  east of  the Baguio Cathedral.  

For some reasons, Tagdi and his wife Sulikham left for Bisil  where the Bell Church was built years later when she was about to give birth to her second baby.   There, Sulikham gave birth to her second and youngest son Takinan,  after which she died.

Amado B. Tagle was said to have been born when the Americans arrived in Baguio.   The person who wrote  the information as to the date of birth of the late Amado based on the information relayed to him, that is, the date  nunta  inmu’gaw ni Merikano shi Baguio, i.e., when the Americans arrived in Baguio  wrote Amado’s birth date  as being on November 17, 1900.

Because of the demise of his wife Sulikham, Comising, or Mising who became Tagdi  or Tagley followed his father Kalias  to Loakan, bringing his baby boy and his firstborn with him.  His female cousins who had babies of their own nursed Amado until he could eat solid food. 

After a short while, Kalias died.   But before he expired, he left instructions to his oldest daughter Bogan who was already  a widow at that time, and to his youngest child Tagdi or Tagley who was already a widower at a young age,  to help each other raise their children, where Bogan should act as the mother of their children, and  Tagdi  who was then still called Comising  as the father of their children.   This resulted to Tagley’s being known as the father of Bogan’s children, hence their surname Comising.  Bogan;s children were Canaya, Pilanta, and Masinag, a.k.a Shaon who all bore the surname Comising.  (To be continued).

B.T. Pistola
(Authority to repost given by Author)

Published at:
Volume 1, No 4
TNT, Baguio City, Philippines
August 10, 2014
https://thenortherntribune.blogspot.com/